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Page 63
"And heat; do you remember how something more than twenty-five years
ago a French scientist proposed to supply all the heat needed for human
comfort in cold climates directly from the sun's rays?"
"I can't say that I do remember that particular philosopher, but I have
a notion that the sun was considered a fair sort of furnace a good many
years before the first Frenchman was born."
"Yes, yes; but he was going to gather the sun's heat into such shape
that it would warm our houses in winter, do all the cooking, take the
place of all the steam boilers and furnaces. I never heard that his
theories were reduced to practice, but we have found another source of
light and heat that is already under our control. There is no more
doubt that all the warmth, illumination and mechanical power that we
can use are within our reach, when we have learned how to take
possession of them, than there is of gravitation. It is all waiting at
the door, we have only to clap our hands and the potent spirit is ready
to do our bidding."
"Without money and without price?"
"No, not quite that, there are too many incorporated monopolies in the
way. But it is coming nearer and nearer, and with the unlimited power
of wind and waves and waterfalls, all these things will soon be as
cheap as anything really worth having ought to be."
"Say, Jill, do you suppose we shall live to see all our necessities
supplied, gratis, and have nothing to work for except the luxuries?"
"We have lived long enough to find that for most people in our day and
generation, even for those who think they have to work very hard 'just
to get a living,' their most serious toil is to provide, what might be
called, not the 'bare' necessities of life, but the well-dressed
necessities. But it is time for those children to be in bed."
CHAPTER XX.
A DOUBLE CONCLUSION.
"Now Jill," this was half an hour later, the children were asleep and
the gas was lighted, "let us by way of amusement draw plans of a castle
in Spain. Let us forget all the houses that ever were built and fancy
ourselves, not Adam and Eve, with the responsibility of setting the
housekeeping pace for the rest of the human family nor Robinson Crusoe,
whose domestic arrangements were somewhat handicapped, but a wise pair
of semi-Bourbons, at the end of the 19th century, who forget nothing
old but are willing to learn and adopt anything new, provided it is
good."
"All right; go ahead."
"In the first place our castle will not be destructible by fire or
water. All the walls will be of masonry and the floor beams will be of
steel. There will be nothing to invite moth or rust."
"Nor burglars; not so much as a silver spoon or a candlestick."
"I have always been sorry that the roof of this house was not
fireproof, but I suppose it would have cost too much, though the
architect said it might have been made like the floors if we would
consent to have it flat."
"Moral: if you want a roof of the mountainous variety you must either
pay for it or run the risk of being burned out on top. But what do
castles in Spain care for the cost? We can have fireproof roofs in
miniature copy of Alpine peaks or we can use them for billiard tables
and croquet grounds."
"Really," Jill continued, "there is no good reason for steep roofs.
Snow is more troublesome on the ground around the house than on top of
it, if it will stay there, and a very slight slope will carry off the
rain. I fancy steep roofs must have been invented when builders used
such clumsy materials for covering that they were obliged to lay them
on a steep pitch in order to keep out the water. Shingles of course
last longer the steeper the roof."
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